Who Lights Up Heaven?

              Yesterday, during the opening collect at Mass, lights began to fade in the church.  Before the end of the first reading, the altar was only lit by candlelight.  (This was a power loss scheduled by the power company to replace a pole, so it wasn’t a complete surprise.) The silence seemed more pronounced during mass. The candle light was soft and fluid and the pace more leisurely.  I’m sure it was in my imagination, but it gave a different perspective to praising and worshiping God.

               Coincidentally, or not, a quote from the daily reading from Revelation 21 stood out for me.  It said, “The city has no need of sun or moon, for the glory of God gave it light, and its lamp was the Lamb. The nations shall walk by it light; to it the kings of the earth shall bring its treasurers.  During the day the gates shall not be shut and there will be no night.”   

                   And the reading for this Sunday is also from Revelation and references light in heaven.  Also in Revelation 21:22-23 is says, “I saw no temple in the city for its temple is the Lord God almighty and the Lamb. The city had no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gave it light, and its lamp was the Lamb.”

                   These readings made me think of the 6^th grade religious education class that I substitute taught a few weeks ago.  In an attempt to help them think about heaven as a real place, I asked them to draw a picture of what they think heaven will be like.  The results were interesting.  One drew a hotel, another had a place for fishing, and one girl can’t imagine heaven with Chipotle.  We talked about the idea that there will not be any hate or fear in heaven.  “But what about baseball?” asked one young man.   Will we need to sleep or eat? All of this, we did not know.

                   What I do know, from the two passages in Revelations is that there will not be a sun or moon or a night.  The light will come from the glory of God.  And yet in the church yesterday, it was the lack of artificial light that helped me feel closer to the one who has all the glory!

Going away with God this Lent

                 As I have been contemplating various potential actions for this impending Lenten season, the one theme I keep coming back to is:  How can I (and my family) be closer to our Lord on Easter through our Lenten observances.  With just a few hours to go before Lent begins, I must say that I am still pondering this question.

                A visiting priest at our parish suggested that we begin with a blank slate.  In other words, forget what we “always” give up or offer and begin thinking anew about how the big three, prayer, fasting and almsgiving can give us a new viewpoint.

                The fact is that I need to find time to “go away with God” during this time.  My life is filled with work, family and volunteer activities, so much so that meeting, events and obligations sometime crash into each other.   This Lent, I need to find time to stop and listen to Him.  Ideally, I would go away, physically, but that is not practical in the next 40 days.

                I will commit to beginning my day with a formal morning offering, dedicating each day to the Lord.  In fact, I will memorize this morning offering, so by the end of Lent, I won’t have to find the prayer on paper or on the internet.

                I will not drink coffee for the next 40 days.

                I will blog each day.  This means that I need to find something worthwhile about my relationship with our Lord each day, and then take the time to think and write about it.  Many days, am a struck by a passage of scripture or something I have read, but the day disappears before I have a chance to clearly write about it.

                I will read, with my family, a Lenten book each night after dinner and share thought that we might have about the reading and prayer.

                Each week, I will participate in one act of worship outside of my normal routine.  This may include Stations of the Cross, Adoration or participation in a Lenten prayer service or day of reflection.

                And I will use a meditation on Mary to grow closer to her during this Lenten walk.

                I will reach out to the poor and homeless during this period for almsgiving.         

                I pray that these activities may bring me closer to our great and mighty triune God.  May my will conform to His will for my life.  May I be a brighter light in this world on Easter morning because of the time I spend away from the business of life, in the peace of the Lord this Lent.  

Light

             Light is in my thoughts this morning. This weekend, we took down our outside Christmas lights.  The weather was unusually warm, so it made sense to do so, and Epiphany (January 6^th) is past.  Today we will take down our Christmas tree.  I reluctantly turned off the lights last night.  I know that it will be next Christmas before I these lights will glow in the living room again.

Wide-awake in the middle of the night, I decided to lie down on our family room couch to see if I could get back to sleep.  Initially, I laid my head at one end of the sofa and then realized that there was light coming through the windows and resting on the other side of the sofa.  “It must be a full moon,” I thought.  I turned around to put my head at the other end of the sofa so the soft, gentle moonlight would rest on my face and upper torso.  As I closed my eyes, I thought of the reflection that I recently read that compared Mary’s reflecting the love of Jesus, like the moon reflecting the light of the sun.  When I woke 90 minutes later, the moonlight was gone and it was time to begin my day.

                As I drove my son to his carpool early this morning, I noticed the pink sky as I drove home - a reminder that the days are lengthening, although we are in the middle of winter.  Each day brings us closer to spring.

                 How fortunate I am to be surrounded by light today: the colorful, beautiful lights of a Christmas tree, celebrating the birth of Jesus, the gentle light of a full moon in the middle of the night, reminding me of Mary and then the sun rising just a little earlier each day in the midst of winter.

                I simply ask that I might be a light to others today.